Tony winners reap B.O. coin

Awards guided Broadway audiences

Last week was a good one to be a Tony winner — and it didn’t hurt if you had an imminent closing, to boot.

Broadway box office for the week ending June 17 was a mixed bag, with gains at some shows balanced by dips at others. But the productions that were fresh off Tony wins turned ticketbuyers’ heads.

Awards-magnet “Once” ($995,362) had its best week so far, as did “Newsies” ($1,049,581), the Disney Theatrical Prods. tuner that won a couple of awards and got a prominent showcase during the awards telecast. Play “One Man, Two Guvnors” ($648,505), which stars lead actor winner James Corden, also logged the best numbers of its run so far.

Despite all that, it was “Venus in Fur” ($635,622), hot on the heels of its win for lead actress Nina Arianda, that posted the biggest proportional bump, jumping a whopping 51%.

It helped, of course, that “Venus,” which spent much of the spring logging middling numbers at best, closed Sunday, so it also got a boost from last-minute biz. The same was true for “Other Desert Cities” ($424,313), which also closed Sunday.

The big gain at “Harvey” ($558,530), on the other hand, couldn’t be attributed to the Tonys but instead to the generally positive reviews of the show that hit the papers Friday.That production played nine perfs rather than the usual eight, but since one was the heavily comped opening night, the show’s rise of 26% (about $115,000) was notable.

The musical revival winner, “Porgy and Bess” ($655,364), managed to climb by 13% despite the fact that topliner and Tony winner Audra McDonald was out sick for four weekend perfs. She’s expected back this week.

Also out during the frame was Ricky Martin, the star draw of the strong-selling revival of “Evita” ($1,238,442). His absence during two perfs is probably partly to blame for the drop at that show, although sales remained plenty healthy.

In any event, dips at individual shows were largely negligible, even if the 16% drop at “End of the Rainbow” ($318,488) was one to keep an eye on. Overall Rialto sales rose by about $575,000 to $25.5 million for 35 shows on the boards.